The Immortal Gate

The Immortal Gate is a classical xianxia web novel by Sibusang. It began serialization on Zongheng Chinese Network in September 2010, concluded in August 2017, and runs to roughly 1.52 million characters. The protagonist, Zhou Quan (also appearing under names such as "Hong Tao" in some reposted editions), wakes one morning to find himself in the Wei-Jin period more than 1,600 years in the past. The Way of the Five Pecks of Rice hails him as a "god descended from heaven," eminent Buddhist monks see him as a reincarnated arhat, and strange encounters and trouble arrive together. This is a genuinely chaotic age: North and South stand opposed, Hu and Han attack each other, Daoist, Buddhist and Xuan schools contend without cease, great clans and humble families are at irreconcilable odds, and the aristocratic houses scheme against one another. The protagonist has no grand ambitions and no wish to join the fray, yet is drawn again and again into the whirlpool—blades at his throat, plots pressing in, friends and kin pushed to the brink—until he has no choice but to step forward. Meanwhile a mysterious sect emerges, heterodox arts and demonic methods multiply, masters of the Buddhist, Daoist and Xuan orders are bewitched into serving as hired muscle, and cultivators on the verge of ascension die strangely one after another; the would-be immortals scurry into hiding and even hope the protagonist will play the savior. The immortal gate is barred, the mortal world has no gods, and the old moral order collapses in the chaos. Starting from martial arts, talismanic methods and calligraphy, the protagonist endures countless hardships to unravel the mysteries and strikes out on a path of his own, finally attaining the Great Way of the Golden Core and gathering the strengths of orthodox and heterodox alike and the arts of a hundred schools. The book sets wuxia and xianxia side by side, pits spells against martial skill, and weaves Daoist techniques, Buddhist powers, Xuan marvels and demonic secret methods into the troubled Wei-Jin era, with historical intrigue, jianghu grudges and puzzle-solving mystery alongside; its main thread is the unraveling of two great enigmas—"why was I transported through time?" and "why is the immortal gate barred?"